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Ecosystem respiration: Drivers of daily variability and background respiration in lakes around the globe

  • Christopher T. Solomon
  • , Denise A. Bruesewitz
  • , David C. Richardson
  • , Kevin C. Rose
  • , Matthew C. Van de Bogert
  • , Paul C. Hanson
  • , Timothy K. Kratz
  • , Bret Larget
  • , Rita Adrian
  • , Brenda Leroux Babin
  • , Chih Yu Chiu
  • , David P. Hamilton
  • , Evelyn E. Gaiser
  • , Susan Hendricks
  • , Vera Istvá
  • , Alo Laas
  • , David M. O'Donnell
  • , Michael L. Pace
  • , Elizabeth Ryder
  • , Peter A. Staehr
  • Thomas Torgersen, Michael J. Vanni, Kathleen C. Weathers, Guangwei Zhu
  • McGill University
  • University of Texas System
  • Smithsonian Institution
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries
  • Louisiana State University
  • Academia Sinica - Biodiversity Research Center
  • University of Waikato
  • Florida International University
  • Murray State University
  • Hungarian Academy of Sciences
  • Estonian University of Life Sciences
  • Upstate Freshwater Institute
  • University of Virginia
  • Marine Institute
  • Aarhus University
  • University of Connecticut
  • Miami University
  • Institute of Ecosystem Studies
  • CAS - Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

246 Scopus citations

Abstract

We assembled data from a global network of automated lake observatories to test hypotheses regarding the drivers of ecosystem metabolism. We estimated daily rates of respiration and gross primary production (GPP) for up to a full year in each lake, via maximum likelihood fits of a free-water metabolism model to continuous highfrequency measurements of dissolved oxygen concentrations. Uncertainties were determined by a bootstrap analysis, allowing lake-days with poorly constrained rate estimates to be down-weighted in subsequent analyses. GPP and respiration varied considerably among lakes and at seasonal and daily timescales. Mean annual GPP and respiration ranged from 0.1 to 5.0 mg O2 L-1 d-1 and were positively related to total phosphorus but not dissolved organic carbon concentration. Within lakes, significant day-to-day differences in respiration were common despite large uncertainties in estimated rates on some lake-days. Daily variation in GPP explained 5% to 85% of the daily variation in respiration after temperature correction. Respiration was tightly coupled to GPP at a daily scale in oligotrophic and dystrophic lakes, and more weakly coupled in mesotrophic and eutrophic lakes. Background respiration ranged from 0.017 to 2.1 mg O2 L-1 d-1 and was positively related to indicators of recalcitrant allochthonous and autochthonous organic matter loads, but was not clearly related to an indicator of the quality of allochthonous organic matter inputs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)849-866
Number of pages18
JournalLimnology and Oceanography
Volume58
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

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